The chaga mushroom grows mainly in cold temperatures in Russia, Scandinavia, northern Europe, Japan, Korea and Central Asia on birch trunks. Chaga fungi are also not uncommon in Germany’s birch forests. It is not the fruiting body, but rather a mass of mycelium, which grows as a jagged, black, usually 20-60 cm tall, hard structure on birch and rarely also alder trunks. If you break open the black-brown crust, the tuber underneath is orange and often streaked with white veins.
In the folk medicine of Siberia, Finland and the entire Baltic, the chaga has had great significance for at least 1,000 years, particularly as a highly effective remedy for cancer prevention. In the process, the inside of the tuber was ground into powder and traditionally prepared as tea or used as a coffee additive. The tumour-inhibiting properties of chaga tea were confirmed by the Moscow Academy of Science in the 1950s. Chaga was also used as a general elixir of life, for blood purification, for healthy skin, to prevent infections and inflammation, and to strengthen the gastrointestinal tract. Chaga pieces charred to ash were used to make a “cleansing water”, which was said to have a strong disinfecting effect and was used especially by women for ablutions during menstruation and for washing babies.
Freshly harvested Chaga mushroom
Chaga contains various triterpenes as well as the pigment melanin, which is said to have a strong antioxidant power. The betulin contained in chaga could be responsible for its anti-tumour and anti-inflammatory properties, although this has not yet been fully scientifically researched. In the traditional preparation as a tea, only the water-soluble substances are contained, which is why dual extracts are recommended for ingestion today. Thanks to its many health-promoting properties, chaga is also becoming increasingly popular in the western world.
